How Does Shakespeare Present The Theme Of Revenge In Hamlet

Imagine you are in a horrible car accident; the wind is roaring and the rain is pouring as you step out of the crashed vehicle; as you look out on the road you see a dog laying in the street dying and the car that hit you pull away. Having to deal with personal tragedy and immediate action along with vengeance and personal feeling occur throughout the events of The Tragedy of Hamlet. Shakespeare is able to portray this fact ever more solidly when Hamlet is faced with the death of his father. This hatches a revenge plot that Hamlet in his moral state is unable to deal with in an acceptable manner. Thus it is represented by Shakespeare with Hamlet's hesitation to kill his uncle -the one who killed his father- but is also represented in the behavior
throughout the play. Hesitation is not the only factor however because Hamlet's immaturity and neglect to use his royal power are also prominent detriments throughout the play.
In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the author establishes Hamlet's sensitive moral nature by pitting it against his sovereign need for revenge by using the theme of reluctance and inaction in the play.

Hamlet's actions throughout the play display that Hamlet is rather immature in the way he goes about enacting his revenge plan. His immaturity which is portrayed throughout the play could be from a social detachment from his family. Seeing as how Hamlet has no mention of other siblings it is easy to assume that he grew up alone around private scholastic teachers and other authority figures. As Allan Massie puts it, " Hamlet can be played as an indecisive and self-questioning Romantic intellectual (the Gielgud interpretation), or as a mixed-up kid, immature, uncertain of himself, veering from self-love to self-loathing by way of self-pity." This description of Hamlet is a general description of how he is portrayed in the play. However as David Thatcher explains "Hamlet is extremely partial to the word" ass "as a term of derision and contempt... Such a mind is well capable of perpetrating the suppressed quibble of "Claudi-ass." Hamlet, obliquely and allusively, took advantage of "the latter end"
of his uncle's name to share a victor's witticism with a comprehending confidant, a witticism all the sharper because it is suggested, not stated." David is directly referencing Hamlet's inappropriate use of his uncle's last name as a way to mock him without actually referencing the hind quarters. Therefore this would have been perceived by Hamlet as something a thirty year old should be doing if his childhood had been more monitored. However this is not the only event which is to happen that shows Hamlets juvenile side. During Act III of the play Hamlet organized a play which is to enact the murder of his father. He creates this play to assure his uncle's guilt but Hamlet reacts to his uncle's panic with youthful hilarity. Hamlet says upon his uncles retreat, "Aha! Come, some music! Come, the recorders! / For if the King like not the comedy, / Why then, belike he likes it not, perdy. / Come, some music!"(3.2.303-305) Such a reaction would mean he found joy in the frenzied uncle, but Hamlet knew of the uncle's guilt so then the entire play was to see the uncles reaction to his actions acted out in front of him. This then would prove that Hamlet, though old, would have the maturity of a child. Thus this should connect that with the maturity of a child he would have the moral nature of a child as well which would have cause to explain that because of his immaturity he wouldn't use power. Hamlet being heir to the throne should be able to use his regal status to get some answers from those who have wronged him but time and time again he never uses this ability. In the play there is reference to his age as Allan Massie says, "On the evidence of the gravediggers' scene, he is 30. This prompted Auden to ask why he is still a student. (Doing a PhD at Wittenberg, perhaps? ) It makes me wonder why everyone seems to have accepted without demur that Claudius should succeed his brother as king, rather than the Prince who is heir-apparent." Therefore Hamlet is old enough to take the thrown but he doesn't; But why? His submissive personality is apparent because he has trouble dealing with power. Such would seem rather admirable seeing as a prince who chooses not to use his power is favorable at times. But when Hamlet neglects to use his power to remove his uncle from the thrown his uncle is able to us e the power hamlet should have wrongfully. With Hamlet still at school at the age of thirty one would assume that Hamlet would have received the idea that he should use his power. Unfortunately Hamlet is more concerned about Ophelia and his mother at the time then to use his authority as prince to remove his uncle from the seat of power. Ergo Hamlet's lack of using his power as prince of Denmark is proof enough that Hamlet has a sensitive-moral nature because he feels too much for the people around him then to take action against his uncle for murdering the king and usurping his thrown. Since Hamlet first thinks to avenge the death of his father he fails to take the thrown allowing his uncle to marry his mother and take the thrown himself. How little is told of Hamlet's father is another question as when Hamlet see's his father's ghost, the ghost doesn't tell him to take the thrown it merely promotes the death of the uncle who betrayed him. If his father used very little of his power it would be easy to assume that Hamlet himself would be hesitant to use his power seeing as how is father never did at all.

While it is easy to take note of Hamlet's inability to act it is also concerning that Hamlet takes a rather extensive time to actually confront his uncle.
One of the more irregular actions that Hamlet takes in the story is the killing of Polonius when Hamlet confronts his mother. Hamlet thinks he hears a rat then thrusts a blade into the curtain ending the life of Polonius, but when he has the chance to murder his uncle he becomes withdrawn. Perhaps the greatest example of how Hamlet becomes withdrawn is when he first comes face to face with his uncle who promptly asks, "How Fares our cousin Hamlet?" To which Hamlet replies, "Excellent, i'faith, of the chameleon's dish:/I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed/ capons so."(3.2.97-100) Where once again a swift strike could have ended his uncle Hamlet once again prefers to take the route of inaction becoming withdrawn and engaging in small talk. Thus when Hamlet desires to end the life of his uncle for the murder of his father he prefers to make his revenge plot all the more complex. For instance, as soon as Hamlet's uncle knows that Hamlet is aware of his guilt he immediately begins to plan his death. Perhaps these fallacies are evident to Shakespeare as Paul Jorgensen puts it, "Hamlet, as a corrective surrogate form of war in Denmark, wages a still more crucial war as an instrument of destiny. He is a human being, one who must battle within himself a war in itself, a war between ruthlessness (a terrible passion) and
humane feelings. The ghost, in his story to his son, tells him not to pity him but take stern action"(pg 52) Hence Hamlet is the personification of war within that of a man and when faced with conflict is unable to decided on what to do even when his fathers dying wish is for Hamlet to avenge him. Shakespeare's representation of Hamlet is subject to uncertainties which make it hard to pinpoint why exactly Hamlet acts the way he does and Hamlet's hesitation and inaction are a result of the face he simply wishes not for murder. In Hamlet's speech he says, "To be, or not to be, that is the question: /Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer /The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune /Or to take arms against a sea of troubles"(3.1.56-59) In Hamlet's mind he struggles with the ability to kill because he himself struggles with the ability to even consider ending the life of another person and wonders if it would be easier just to live with this and not avenge his father explaining his morality. But most of all during his end he exclaims, "Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee."(5.2.337) In Hamlet's final moments he himself is finally able to break free of his revenge and exclaims it with strength even in his dying moments. However puzzling it may seem that Hamlet does not act immediately, Shakespeare goes on to develop a character who struggles with the way he will enact his revenge. Be it Hamlet's immaturity that prevents him from developing the rational to which he would be able to execute his uncle or his qualm in his royal power which hitherto prevents Hamlet from merely throwing him in a dungeon; Hamlet has acted as a child throughout the entire play. Inevitably though the inaction toward his uncle shows Hamlets sensitive moral nature preventing any real development of the revenge until the end of the play. With Shakespeare's representation of Hamlet being skewed and unnatural, the possibilities being represented in Hamlet's character show distinct characteristics of an imbalanced moral nature. But all together, Shakespeare presents Hamlet as a person whose inexperience and probably upbringing caused discrepancies to appear when faced with a task suited more toward one of war then a scholar preventing Hamlet to making or taking an action on how to deal with his father's death which ultimately leads to the death of almost everyone he knows.